Hohoe
More actions
| Hohoe | |
|---|---|
| ActiveRecorded as grown here since 2000 | |
| Geography | |
| Country | Ghana |
| Province/State | Volta Region |
| District | Hohoe Municipal District |
| Coordinates | 7.10, 0.48 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 330 km² |
| Terrain | Farmland, forest, savannah and mountain country drained by the River Dayi; approximately Hohoe Municipal District |
| Growing history | |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
Hohoe is a landrace cannabis growing area in Hohoe Municipal District, in the Volta Region of Ghana. Police uprooted plants suspected to be cannabis at Gbi-Akplamafu in 2007, destroyed a cannabis plantation at Kpota in 2009 and destroyed cannabis farms along the River Dayi at Avega in 2015.[1][2][3] In 2024 researchers interviewed 14 people who grew cannabis in the municipality. Their study describes the municipality as a major cannabis-growing hub of the Volta Region.[4]
Geography
The town of Hohoe, the district capital, is about 78 km from Ho, the regional capital. Hohoe District was formed in 1979 from parts of the old Jasikan and Kpando district councils and became a municipality in 2008. Afadzato South District was separated from it in 2012 and Guan District in 2020.[5]: 4
The River Dayi is the main source of water in the municipality, for homes and for irrigation. It flows through semi-deciduous forest, savannah and mountain vegetation. The municipal assembly reports that poor farming practices and logging are degrading the basin.[5]: 10 More than half of the households in the municipality farm, nine in ten of them growing crops.[4] Rice, cassava, maize and vegetables are the main crops.[5]: 6
Farms and eradication
In 2016 the Narcotics Control Board ranked the Volta Region first in Ghana for cannabis use and cultivation. It said that many young people in the region had taken to growing marijuana, or wee.[6] A trader interviewed in the late 1990s ranked "taffeta", a cannabis with dense leaves and very small seeds grown in the Volta Region, second in quality among four kinds of cannabis in Ghana.[7]: 23
In August 2007 police from Kpando and Ho spent about five hours uprooting plants suspected to be cannabis on five farms at Gbi-Akplamafu, near Alavanyo-Abenyinase, and held four people.[1] In April 2009 police destroyed an 80-acre (32-hectare) plantation at Kpota, near Akolamafu, and arrested six people. They cut the plants down and sprayed them with weedkiller, using spray guns provided by the Ghana Cocoa Board. The divisional police commander at Hohoe alleged that some foreign nationals were financing large-scale cannabis cultivation in Ghana for export.[2] Later that month the police at Hohoe reported death threats from the owners of an 85-acre (34-hectare) farm they had destroyed. Joy FM's Volta correspondent said that the owners of the large farms in the region lived in Accra and employed boys, some as young as nine, to work them.[8]
In February 2015 police detectives went to Avega, near Ando, after reports of a syndicate growing cannabis there. They found farms stretching along the banks of the River Dayi and destroyed about 50 of an estimated 150 acres (20 of 61 hectares). They took away five water pumps used to irrigate the farms, with two weedkiller sprayers.[3] In April 2025 the Volta North police command burnt 61 sacks of cannabis, each holding 40 parcels, at a refuse site at Gbi Wegbe in the municipality, under a court order.[9]
Growers
In May and June 2024 Joyce Mawufemor Dovlo and colleagues at the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho interviewed 14 people growing cannabis illegally in the municipality, in Ewe or English. Each was found through another grower. Thirteen were men and 13 were aged between 30 and 40. Seven had grown cannabis for 11 years or more.[4]
The growers were asked what the licensing of cannabis for industrial and medical use, passed by Parliament in 2023, would mean to them. One said that they now grew it in fear; once it was legal they would grow it as freely as cassava and okra. Another said that the police followed them to their farms. Five expected the government to supply seed and fertiliser. One also expected it to buy the harvest. Another had heard that the government would replace the seed they used. Nine feared the cost of a licence, which two of them had heard put at 50,000 and 20,000 cedis. One asked for free fertiliser every year, as the government had given cocoa farmers.[4]
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No recent news items.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Four persons arrested for cultivating Indian hemp". MyJoyOnline. Ghana News Agency. 17 August 2007. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Foreigners financing cannabis farming in Ghana". MyJoyOnline. Ghanaian Times. 8 April 2009. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Farmer remanded for cultivating cannabis". GhanaWeb. Ghana News Agency. 19 March 2015. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Dovlo, Joyce Mawufemor; Agyei, Samuel Tweneboa; Dwomoh, Festus; Manu, Emmanuel (2026). "Opinions of illicit cannabis growers on the industrial legalization of cannabis in Ghana: an exploratory qualitative study". Substance Use: Research and Treatment. 20 29768357261458735. doi:10.1177/29768357261458735.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Hohoe Municipal Assembly (2026). Composite Budget for 2026–2029: Programme Based Budget Estimates for 2026 (PDF) (Report). Ministry of Finance, Ghana. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "Volta Region tops in 'Wee' use & cultivation". GhanaWeb. 22 June 2016. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (March 1999). The Drug Nexus in Africa (PDF) (Report). ODCCP Studies on Drugs and Crime, Monograph series 1. Vienna: United Nations.
- ↑ Daabu, Malik Abass (21 April 2009). "Death threats for police over destroyed marijuana farms". MyJoyOnline. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
- ↑ "Ghana Police Destroy 61 Bags of Cannabis in Hohoe Following Court Order". 3News. 3 April 2025. Retrieved 18 October 2026.